Delighting in the many ways God suprises us with His Glory in the Ordinary of our days…

Monthly Archives: July 2015

“The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” Luke 10:2

Therefore

You’ve probably heard this before, but it’s worth saying here: whenever you see the word “therefore” you need to look and see what it’s there for.

Therefore is a connecting word. It connects what has preceded it to what is coming next. There is culmination involved. The speaker or writer has been building a case, setting the stage, laying it out as it were to get to something else.

Jesus has done just that here. The stage is set:

“The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few” has been laid out for all it’s glorious, yet problematic reality. Jesus has a gargantuan task for his followers to work hard in. A task so big and so far reaching that it is impossible, except that we know that nothing is impossible with God.

And now he’s about to explain how we are to participate with Him in His glorious plan. There should be anticipation, expectancy, hope! – for we’ve just seen the problem but we know that the Savior we serve is full of miraculous, unexpected answers for the impossible.

We’ve looked closely at each of these words, both in their meaning separately and in how they stand together. This is Jesus talking to us. This is our Savior who has drawn us so effectively to himself that he has taken our hearts of stone and turned them into hearts of flesh to follow hard after him. This is our friend and teacher – our guide and protector – who has told us “fear not, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. He will never leave you nor forsake you…”

Everything that precedes the “therefore” is to remind us of the kind of Master we serve. It is setting the foundation for what follows. It gives us all the reasons for the next part. It is saying, “because of all of this….”

We need the foundation because we forget who we are talking about. We need the setting of the stage because we lose sight of the plan. We need the case to be built again for us – plainly – because we get distracted by so many lesser things.

Remembering that he is good and kind, faithful, true, loving, patient, powerful, and every other thing that we know is TRUE of the mighty God we serve will give us courage for the impossible task he is calling us to. It is because of this that we are reminded that “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,” and like Paul we preach to ourselves, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

These truths anchor of our souls. They keep us from being blown and tossed by the storms in our lives. They center us on what is important and our focused gaze on who is talking to us will help us ignore the thousands of things around us at every given moment on every given day.

Being reminded that Jesus has a purpose to all of this and that he is calling us to see his plan – to be intimately engaged in his mission – reminds us that the world is not spinning aimlessly into oblivion. He is in control of all things and through Him all things hold together. He was sent to bring a people to himself and he is calling us – inviting us – to the same purpose. He is calling us to be actively involved in his Kingly work.

In calling us to remember that he has already accomplished everything he needs to achieve his stated goals. He reminds us that His work will be accomplished – we need not ever fear that our labor for Him will be the toil that grinds us into the ground. Instead, he promises good fruit for faithful service. Jesus says there is a plentiful harvest. He doesn’t say, “Look guys, if we all work together we just might be able to pull this one off.” No! It’s a sure thing. A sealed deal. We have assurance that the One with the power, might, and authority to do all of this is telling us it has already been secured.

“With my plan and purposes in mind,” he says “therefore…”

“Because I am the God of the Universe,” he says, “therefore…”

“Because I have conquered sin and death,” he says, “therefore…”

“Because I have a people to call to myself from every tongue and tribe and nation,” he says, “therefore…”

“Because I am who I am,” he says, “therefore…”

And here, if we’re listening and paying attention to the One we know and love and trust, we hear what Jesus is saying. He is telling us, “Because I have a beautiful harvest that is ready to be brought into my good and perfect kingdom storehouses of souls that will live forever in My presence and sweet communion with me and all who are mine, and because there will never be enough of you to accomplish that – to bring in all the magnificent, glorious, God-magnifying plentiful bounty I have prepared to reap today and in every age until I return, from here and every group of people on the face of the earth… therefore.

These are unshakable truths. They are not hopeful wishes or sighs of optimistic, positive thinking. They are givens. Absolutes. Unqualified and unconditional. Jesus will accomplish what he has said he will accomplish because he already has done everything needed to accomplish it.

They are because he says they are – and we can trust in them because we trust in Him.

“The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” Luke 10:2

Are few

Let me ask you a question – and Indian idiom (or so I’ve heard) – that I’ve asked my children many, many times… How do you eat an elephant?

The answer (and they all know this, too) is, “One bite at a time.”

When they are facing a task that seems to be too big for them to ever be able to accomplish (like catching up 30 lessons of math or cleaning out the garage or earning enough money to pay for something big) I’ve tried to teach them to just get started and do the first bit. After the first bit is started the next bit is a little easier, and soon, you’re trucking along with a song in your heart and the job is getting done.

Most of the time a little more encouragement is needed, the mountainous task in front of them looms large until it’s more than half way gone, and there is a whole lot of discipline that goes into continuing to the end than the above description might lead one to believe. But in the end, one faithful foot in front of the other – one bite at a time as it were – really is the best way to go. We see a big thing and we just need to get on with it.

But sometimes the task in front of us really is impossible. There’s too much work for one person – or a few – to ever be able to get done.

What do you do when there is a job in front of you that is simply too big?

What do you do when the job is like digging a well in the desert with a spoon or building a road through the mountains with a toy dump truck – a job that just can’t be done without more?

When Jesus told his disciples that the laborers were few he was, perhaps, opening their eyes to the enormity of the task he was setting before them and the impossibility that they alone could do it. It was as if he was saying, “Look – I have a harvest that is more plentiful than the stars. My harvest is more numerous than the grains of sand at the sea. There aren’t enough of you. You can’t do it…”

I don’t know – maybe I’m a little looney – or maybe my imagination just gets the better of me sometimes, but I think if I had been listening to this I might have been having mental whiplash setting in about now.

OK, let me get this straight, Jesus – I really am trying to understand what you’re saying here… Harvest – really good. Plentiful – check. Labor – hard, but fulfilling, got it. Task – impossible… huh??? I don’t know, Jesus – this sort of sounds like you’re setting us up to fail, doesn’t it? You’re sending us out there without enough workers to do an impossible task? What is that supposed to accomplish?”

Do not fear them that can kill the body…. OK – is it just me or does this sound impossible, too?

All of these things are impossible, except that nothing is impossible with God.

So let’s look at those commands again.

Be perfect – Christ makes it possible.

Love your enemies – Christ makes it possible.

Forgive those who wrong you – Christ makes it possible.

Turn the other cheek – Christ makes it possible.

You get the idea… Go to work at a task which simply aren’t enough of you for…. Christ makes that possible, too.

The beauty in all of the “impossibles” in our lives is that God gets all the glory. When Moses had to win a battle against the heavily armed, highly trained Egyptian army with a bunch of terrified, cowering slaves – everyone there knew it was impossible for God’s people to prevail – except that with God, it wasn’t.

When Gideon had to win a battle being ridiculously outnumbered 300 to… so many that they are described as, “like locusts… and grains of sand in their abundance”… everyone there knew God’s people prevailing there was impossible, too. Except that with God, it wasn’t.

When Joshua was told to instruct the priests, and then the army to go march around a city blowing horns in order to prevail against it, OK, come on – that was just humiliating in its impossibility. Except that with God, it was anything but.

So this is starting to get clearer, now, isn’t it?

Jesus is telling us – “Go. I have a ridiculously impossible task for you to do. Trust me on this one, it’s completely outside of your skill set – I mean really. There aren’t enough of you and there’s no way you can do it, but I want you to go and do it anyway. Because with me, all things are possible.”

“The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” Luke 10:2

The Laborers

I have spent most of my life being surrounded by laborers. Farm laborers, factory laborers, ship yard laborers, and landscape laborers just to name a few. I have visited other countries where this is also true – on any given morning on any given street the hustle and bustle everywhere was of laborers who did everything from laundry to construction, and some simply walked along the roads each day and picked up trash. I have seen trains in big cities packed to the seeming breaking point of laborers shuffling from home to job and back again. Every day, no matter what else in life is swirling about, people working for others do just that – they get up, go out, and they work hard – for someone else.

People who are motivated know how to work. The term “laborers” carries with it the understanding of hard, physical exertion. Jesus was not talking about tourists, or onlookers. He wasn’t referring to passers-by, or those whose station in life has made it so that they have others do their work for them.

No, Jesus was talking about the grit and grime of exhausting, sweat-producing, ongoing work.

So who are these laborers? Who is Jesus referring to?

In one sense surely Jesus was talking about the disciples who would start his church. The world was ripe for a huge harvest and after his work was done, the harvest began. But in another very real sense there is another group of workers who must sit up and listen as we heed Jesus’ words. For in the same way that he was speaking to his disciples (and also to us) when he said, “go, therefore, into all the world and make disciples…” he was speaking to the same future disciples when he spoke the words of Luke 10:2.

We are those workers! We are the ones who are to live giving our lives and energy and devotion to the sweet and rewarding task he has called us to. Isn’t it wonderful to know that you have been hand-picked by the maker of the universe to be in his service?

But let me ask you something that might make you wince a little….

When was the last time you broke a sweat for the Gospel? When was the last time you fell into bed exhausted from your efforts to woo people to the warmth and peace of the Love of Christ? When was the last time you labored to see another soul brought to Christ? When was the last time you were working so hard at this that you thought you couldn’t go on?

(I’m asking myself these questions, too.)

I wrote once about the joy I found in cleaning a particularly filthy bathroom because I realized I was doing it for the Lord. That has remained a powerful lesson in my life. It doesn’t matter what God asks me to do, I’m happiest doing that, knowing Who it is that I am really serving, than I am doing anything else! There is great joy – giddy, delightful, soul-rejuvenating joy – when we know that our work is for the Lord of the Harvest!

Work is hard, but work is good. Sometimes I have to remind my kids that work was not part of the curse when sin entered the world. God gave Adam work to do before Eve came along! Work is our mission. Work is sweet and rewarding. We were made for work!

Toil is what came about as part of the curse. Toil is that relentless, exhausting, fruitless struggle that brings about no product for all our effort and barely keeps us from losing ground. Toil is part of our existence right now, but work is, too.

Being a laborer in Christ’s harvest is magnificent work. If you’re finding that you are lacking joy in your mission, let me lovingly suggest that you might be toiling for the wrong harvest, because Jesus promises that his burden is easy and his yoke is light.